KELLY BURRIS:
Attorney, Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione, Ann Arbor office. Burris focuses her practice on the preparation and prosecution of United States and foreign patent applications in the mechanical, materials science, and electrical arts. She also is involved in due diligence with mergers and acquisitions, transactional matters, the management and administration of corporate intellectual property portfolios and policies, and strategic competitive intelligence. Before joining Brinks, Burris held positions with legal firms in St. Louis and Fort Wayne. She began her career, however, as an aeronautical engineer with McDonnell Douglas and Boeing, where she worked on the first-ever completely digital aircraft design. She holds a U.S. patent in the area of fiber optics. Burris was among the first patent attorneys in the country to develop electronic files and secure client portals to access, communicate, and maintain legal files for clients. She is an active volunteer pilot for Angel Flight Mid-Atlantic and Angel Flight Central, members of the Air Charity Network. In June, she competed in her first Air Race Classic, an all-female national aviation race from Montana to Massachusetts. Burris has served as an adjunct professor at the Department of Defense – Defense Systems Management College in St. Louis, the University of Illinois, and Washington University in St. Louis. Her memberships include the American Bar Association, American Intellectual Property Law Association, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, and Women in Aviation International. She received her bachelor's in aeronautical engineering from Western Michigan University, her master's in material science and engineering from Washington University in St. Louis, and her JD from Saint Louis University.
